Definition: The Kerkopes (or Cercopes or Kercopes) were warned by their mother to beware of the "melampygos" or black-bottomed one, but they did not know whom she meant. When Hercules (Herakles) caught the Kerkopes trying to steal his arrows while he slept, he slung them over his shoulder by their heels where they had a good look at his sun-darkened posterior.
The Kerkopes started laughing because they remembered their mother had warned them against the black-bottomed one. After explaining their laughter to Hercules, he joined in and, being the good sport that he usually was, released them.
The eventual fate of the Kekropes was to be turned either to stone or to monkeys.
Nonnus is the most complete source, according to "Herakles' Attributes and Their Appropriation by Eros," by Susan Woodford. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 109, (1989), pp. 200-204.
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